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In 1972, Bowie picked some boots, a printed dungaree and went to a London street to pose for the cover of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Later, this year, Bowie decided to change his look to become a creature with a closer appearance to an alien. So he talked with Daniella Parmar, a haridresser, and give him the look that the Aladdin Sane’s cover presents. David said:

It looked to me like the most dinamic colour, so I wanted to have it as soon as possible. I remember it was the red of Schwarzkopf. I had to habituate to the sessions with the dryer and to that awful first hand of lacquer.

Aladdin Sane was the first album with Mike Garson at the keyboards, thing that gave the album a special taste, a special colour that aims to what Bowie’s music would look like in 1975’s album Young Americans. In Paolo Hewitt’s book, “David Bowie: life and discography”, appears a fragment of an interview that David made in 1973 where he talked about the music in Aladdin Sane:

Part of Aladdin Sane’s music is strange, weird. I have been influenced by some of the best and most advanced musicians of jazz, such as Mike Garson or Keith Tippett. Mike is playing with The Spiders, and the music that he develops goes from a basic theme, on which I and the musicians improvise. I love glam rock, but just by itself leaves me few options.